One of my favourite things to hear at work as a Registered Music Therapist is: “No way!! How is it that easy?!” – and I hear this almost every day when someone finds out that their favourite song is less complicated than they realised.

Part of my job is to find pathways of self-expression, or a musical reason to practice a task to strengthen an activity of daily living. Other times, we are building confidence, identity and self expression through building/acquiring musical skill. And sometimes that means learning some basic guitar skills.

Here are my top ten ‘easy’ guitar songs for music therapy

Most of these only use 3-4 chords, and many can share these same chords if you transpose them.

1. Rock and Roll – Led Zeppelin
2. Long Way To The Top – AC/DC
3. Hound Dog – Elvis Presley
4. Voodoo Child Slight Return (the verse is one chord) – Jimi Hendrix
5. Rock Around The Clock – Bill Haley & His Comets
6. Rockin’ Robin – Bobby Day
7. I Got You (I Feel Good) – James Brown
8. Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
9. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
10. A Horse With No Name – America